Leg-spinner Amit Mishra produced a stunning performance, taking four wickets in five deliveries, including a hat-trick, as Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled off an incredible 11-run victory over Pune Warriors in the Pepsi Indian Premier League, in Pune, on Wednesday.
Mishra (4-19) struck with the second, fourth, fifth and sixth deliveries of his final over as Warriors were dismissed for 108 in 19 overs, chasing a mediocre target of 120 runs.
The partisan crowd at the Subrata Roy Sahara stadium was stunned into disbelief as Pune slumped from 101 for 4 in the 17th over to 108 all out in 19 overs, as Mishra registered his third hat-trick over the six editions of the cash-rich T20 league.
It was an inexplicable collapse; the home team lost as many as six wickets for seven runs in the space of 13 balls.
Mishra, who earlier scored a useful 30, came in to bowl the 19th over of the innings, with Warriors needing 14 runs off 12 deliveries and four wickets in hand.
First, it was skipper Angelo Mathews (20), who was fooled by a flighted delivery as he holed out in the deep.
Mishra then bowled three consecutive googlies and snapped up Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Rahul Sharma and Ashoke Dinda before they could score.
While Bhuvneshwar was trapped leg before, Rahul and Dinda were clean bowled as they misread the wrong 'un.
A target of 120 was certainly not difficult as Robin Uthappa (22, 14 balls, 4x4) and Aaron Finch (16, 13 balls, 3x4) hit seven boundaries in the first four overs to give the rest of the batsmen a head start.
Although Thisara Perera dismissed Uthappa and Finch off successive deliveries, the target was always within reach of the home team.
However, the likes of Steven Smith (17), Mathews and Mitchell Marsh (14) all looked set before playing some horrible shots when the match was there for Warriors.
Sunrisers, thus, registered their fourth win in six matches while it was the fourth loss for Warriors, one that could seriously dent the morale of the side.
Earlier, Sunrisers’ captain Kumar Sangakkara dropped himself from the playing eleven to make way for South African opener Quinton de Kock but the move did not pay off.
Team India seamer Bhuvneshwar Kumar bowled an inspirational spell to grab three for 17 in his four overs as he polished the Sunrisers top-half within the first six.
His new ball partner Ashoke Dinda (1/25 in 4 overs) was also impressive as the duo put tremendous pressure on the top-order.
The slide started with opener De Kock being caught in the covers off Dinda.
In his second over, the team's third, Bhuvneshwar cleaned up Parthiv Patel (12) and Cameron White off successive deliveries.
While Parthiv played inside the line for a delivery that held its line after pitching, White was foxed by the low bounce as the ball swung back into him.
Hanuma Vihari (1) wasted seven deliveries before fishing at the eighth one and getting caught at first slip to give Bhuvneshwar his third wicket.
Sunrisers were tottering at 17 for four by the end of the first quarter.
Odisha all-rounder Biplab Samantray (37, 37 balls, 3x4, 1x6) tried his bit along with Karan Sharma (7) as they took the score to 41.
It was leggie Rahul Sharma (2/21), who trapped Karan leg-before, to make it 41 for five.
The dangerous Thisara Perera was eliminated from the equation by Mitchell Marsh as the Sri Lankan all-rounder edged one to Uthappa behind.
Samantray's gutsy knock finally ended when he holed out in the deep to give Rahul his second scalp.
It was Mishra (30, 24 balls, 3x4) and Ashish Reddy (19), who added 40 runs for the eighth wicket, that took the score past 100.
Photograph: BCCI
